Mental sanity

I'm writing this blog while relaxing with about 40 other vet
students after a brutal week of finals. Finals is the time of year
when everything you looked at and said "I don't need to learn that"
comes back at you full force. As a vet student, there are more than
just animals that can bite you. The term cumulative sends chills up
your spine. Finals are one of the most challenging aspects of
veterinary school. Life was bliss in undergrad when you just needed
to make a grade in the course and get through it. With veterinary
school it is important to remember what you've learned in previous
years; it all builds.

The first semester of third year was exhilarating and
exhausting. Third year students performed survival surgeries and
entered the clinics for the first time. Our schedules were full of
countless hours of lectures and labs. It is astounding to look back
and reflect on how much we've learned in 2.5 years. We started
first year with an undergrad mentality of memorizing and passing
classes. That mentality has changed and now we sit in classes
hearing clinical cases and have begun to think like doctors. I'm
amazed at how much my classmates have grown and how we have grown
together.

As my classmates and I sit here reminiscing on how terrible that
radiology final was, I realize we could not survive vet school
without each other. Classmates are those we commiserate with and to
vent to. We have friends, family, and significant others outside of
vet school we lean on, but at the end of the day our classmates are
the only ones who truly understand what school is like. I think
veterinarians share a special bond with their colleagues. Where
many professions can become competitive in school, veterinarians
are a band of brothers...even if most of us are sisters. We rely on
each other and depend on each other to get through the most
grueling educational endeavor of our lives. We bring each other
just a little bit of mental sanity.